Constantly and everywhere, people are confronted with borders and boundaries in every possible meaning of the words (physical or mental, external or internal…). But what are these borders exactly? What boundaries do we live with? Where are they? Who or what decides that? Can we change them? Do we really want to?

These borders and boundaries are paradoxical things. Often, they symbolize restriction: we impose them on ourselves or on others. At the same time, as several philosophers have pointed out, they are important conditions for freedom. Do they constrain us? Or do we need them? Or both? And how is that possible?

This project wants to research the meanings and possibilities of borders and boundaries, leading towards a transdisciplinary performance that unites dance/movement with architecture/installation and music.

We would like to start from what is present in the rehearsal room: the human body. What borders and boundaries does it have? How do those relate to other bodies, to the surroundings? We may go further and connect to the relation between humans and nature, and the borders that can get transgressed between them (macro level). Or, opposite to this, to the one between human bodies and the microcosms within (where transgression means disease).

Complementary to this research of body and movement, we would like to research architectural elements of installation which could be integrated in the performance. We now imagine, for example, the constellation of a pomegranate as a sample of borders and neighborhood and the inside and outside. Here, we would like to experiment with possibilities for the audience to interfere with these ‘borders’ or other spectators’ positions within the space (= interactional line of thought).

Current lines of thought center around keywords such as: public/personal/intimate space – your freedom ends where mine begins – geographical/physical borders as metaphors for mental/internal ones – the relationship humankind/nature as a metaphor for the relationship between microbes/viruses/illnesses and the human beings they inhabit.

Ines Minten writes about art and culture, for media (De Standaard, Rekto:Verso, Collect…) and organisations (Museum M, Kunstwerkt Leuven, Cultuurloket, Playground Festival…). She has a background in art critique (theatre, dance, visual arts) and more recently, she has been using this experience for (dance) dramaturgy. She has studied Germanic languages (English/Dutch), Journalism and Theatre studies.

Sina Shoaie started his music adventure from 1996 by practicing Alto flute.

In 2002 he went to Ukraine to continue his education in Design Thinking at the Kiev National University of Technology and Design. At the same time he continued his journey through various musical styles, and collaborated and participated in many events. His interest in sound synthesis sparked an idea of how sound may affect the biochemistry of the human body. This gradually lead to multi-disciplinary researches and co-operations with several artists and engineers, which then resulted in a series of workshops and lectures, widely targeted from architecture to effective sound design for motion pictures and multimedia.

In 2011, Sina started his professional career as an electronic musician and sound designer, performing on official stages and at festivals. Some notable events are listed below:

Soolmaz Shoaie is an interdisciplinary artist who approaches dance through her background in architecture. She wants to research the relation between the body and architecture, mainly through the influence of frequencies (of light, sound, et cetera) on space design and on the body

This way the body, as a projector and receiver of frequencies, can be both sculptor and sculpture. Consequently, there is a direct relation of cause and effect between the body and the space, and we can as well study the body through space and the space through the body

Soolmaz Shoaie has been working mostly on historical buildings and studied the mentality of these constructions as a part of history and past rituals of the owners and citizens of the region they occupied

After being introduced into mime, she entered the realm of contemporary dance. From there she has always tried to find a meeting point between architecture, mime and dance in her artworks

Masoumeh Jalalieh is a Tehran based professional artist working on performative body arts, such as physical theater (mime) and contemporary dance. She likes to research interdisciplinary codes in images, sounds and movement. ‘The body is a complicated collection of all elements of nature, such as time, space, ambiance, speed, density, temperature, transition, concentration... I observe, explore and study these elements through the body and movement. This way, I communicate my imagination using the most ultimate language human beings have at their disposal.’ Masoumeh is undoubtedly interwoven with the society, culture and ritual carpet of her homeland. ‘I carry myself, my family, my ancestors, and history with me, and thus communicate myself, my country and its people through my artistic statements.’